Doctors set up NICU with equipment received during Covid pandemic to save

At times it seemed an impossible task but the team of doctors and nurses did not want to give up on the premature baby born during a six-and-a-half-month pregnancy. Toiling relentlessly, they managed to send her home after 99 days of remaining in the Darjeeling District Hospital.

A neonatal ICU (NICU) had been put together recently with the equipment received during the pandemic and this was one among the many success stories etched by the NICU.

“No district hospital has NICUs. We had put together equipment that had come in during pandemic for neonatal care to come up with the NICU at the Darjeeling District Hospital. Despite many shortcomings and multiple complications, the baby could be saved. The baby was the first case in the Darjeeling District Hospital where a pulmonary surfactant was administered,” stated doctor Tsheten Sherpa, paediatrician.

The baby born during six-and-a-half-months of pregnancy weighed 980 g when she was born. “Her organs, including her lungs, were not formed. She was immediately kept in a ventilator for around 5 days and then in a non-invasive ventilator for around 15 days. She then developed Apnea (stopped breathing at intervals). The doctors and nurses had to watch over her and nudge her, forcing her to breathe. This happened day and night. Her eyesight also developed problems and laser intervention had to be carried out in Siliguri,” added doctor Sherpa.All the hard work, dedication and improvisations finally paid off and the baby went home on Wednesday. Her weight is now 1kg 800 gram. “We express our gratitude to the doctors and nurses who struggled day in and day out to save my child. We hope more equipment is brought to the NICU so that such babies can be saved. In government hospitals, treatment is free. In private facilities such treatment would have cost a fortune,” stated Sujala Tamang, mother of the baby. “If we did not have the neonatal ventilator the baby would have to be referred to Siliguri. Grim chances are that she would make it through the three-hour-long journey. With steady supply of expendables, including ventilator circuits, such cases can be treated,” added Dr Sherpa.